MOBs recall of the real Commodus is pretty much correct - poisoned by his favourite concubine, then strangled when it looked like he might survive the poison.
And yes, definately a strong contender in the mad emperor stakes, though behind Caligula and Elegabulus.
Not only did he think he was Hercules reborn, and act it out and dress appropriately, but he also used to do things like spend a day at the arena shooting a hundred bears, or shooting off the heads of ostriches with special arrows. He also named at one point renamed all the months of the year after various of his own titles.
The real Commodus was so much more an interesting character than the Gladiator version.
Of course, the Red Emperor IS a divine being, and everyone agrees with him, so if he wanders about dressed as a god, thats OK. I think very often the Emperor does do things of this level of madness (particularly the really dubious masks), but its officially OK because he really is a demigod. As Salvador Dali once said of himself, the only difference between the Emperor and a madman is that the Emperor is not mad (hes a demigod - it just looks as if he is mad). If the Red Emperor spends a few months pretending he is some particular god, and lapsing into parandoid megalomania, he obviously has a good reason for it. Do not be alarmed.
(this is the sort of thing I think must often happen in the Lunar court. And the Lunar high nobility take it all in their stride, which tells you something about what sort of people they are)
Cheers David ------------------------------
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #638
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